Paranormal tours in the United States are attracting Halloween enthusiasts looking for experiences beyond traditional haunted houses, with former psychiatric hospitals, funeral homes and morgues offering visitors the chance to investigate places associated with death and tragedy.
For some travellers, the search for a frightening experience is becoming part of their holiday plans. Booking.com has identified “Trip to the Beyond” as one of its travel trends for 2027, reflecting growing interest in experiences connected to the paranormal, the afterlife and spirituality.
The company’s survey of more than 28,000 travellers across 32 countries and territories found that 65% were interested in paranormal experiences. Almost half, or 48%, said they would seek an experience in the hope of communicating with someone on the other side, while half expressed curiosity about activities exploring death, spirituality or what might happen after life.
In the United States, attractions built around reportedly haunted locations are already catering to that interest. At a former psychiatric hospital near Detroit, Michigan, and a former funeral home in Toledo, Ohio, visitors can join guided investigations, use equipment associated with paranormal research and, in some cases, spend the night inside the buildings.
These experiences appeal to visitors who want something different from conventional Halloween attractions, where staged scares and costumed performers provide the entertainment. Instead, operators invite guests to explore real buildings with histories connected to illness, death and human suffering, while investigating claims that unexplained activity takes place there.
One of the locations drawing visitors is Eloise Asylum in Westland, a suburb of Detroit. Justin Cox, founder of Michighost Paranormal, leads investigations through the upper floors of the attraction, where patients were once treated.
Cox says guests have reported being touched or grabbed, finding handprints on their clothing and hearing whistles. He describes a range of experiences that visitors interpret as evidence of paranormal activity, although such accounts do not establish that ghosts exist.
Eloise began in the 19th century as a poorhouse before expanding into a large public institution operating under several names. By the late 1920s, the complex had become one of the largest public health facilities in the United States.
For paranormal investigators, the site’s history is central to its appeal. Cox told The Associated Press that he believes traumatic experiences leave behind energy that can create hauntings. Given the suffering associated with the institution, he considers Eloise an especially active location.
The commercial use of the site has also attracted criticism. Relatives of former patients and others with connections to Eloise have objected to turning a place where vulnerable people experienced hardship into a paid entertainment attraction. Their concerns raise questions about how historic institutions associated with suffering should be preserved and presented to visitors.
Most of the Eloise complex was demolished during the 1980s, but a five-storey red-brick building known as the Kay Beard Building remains. It now houses the Eloise Asylum attraction, where paranormal tours take visitors through areas connected to the institution’s former operations.
Among the rooms is one containing a bathtub used for hydrotherapy treatments. Some guests choose to get inside it as part of their visit. For those who want a longer experience, the attraction also offers overnight stays.
Lexi Carter, the attraction’s lead makeup artist and scare actor, has taken part in a paranormal investigation at the site. She described the upper floors as feeling alive and said she was struck by the equipment used during the tour.
Investigators commonly bring spirit boxes, which scan radio frequencies for sounds they interpret as possible messages, and electromagnetic field meters, which measure changes in electromagnetic fields. Some paranormal enthusiasts associate unusual readings with supernatural activity, although the equipment does not independently verify the presence of spirits.
Carter said watching the devices register activity left her surprised and excited by the experience.
About eight kilometres south of Eloise, another attraction offers a different setting for paranormal investigations. The former Urbanski Funeral Home in Toledo operated from 1926 until it was sold in 2025. It has since been transformed into Mortuary Manor, a funeral home museum and overnight destination occupying a building of approximately 5,580 square metres.
The property allows visitors to explore areas including the former embalming and autopsy rooms, as well as a basement morgue. One of its most striking features is a slab projecting from a basement wall, where guests commonly pose for photographs as though they were lying in a morgue.
Mortuary Manor also offers accommodation for visitors willing to spend the night in the building. A five-room suite costs $200, according to the attraction’s operators, who have combined the site’s former use with modern facilities.
Operations manager Cory Leibenguth lives in a neighbouring upstairs apartment. He says the building has indoor plumbing, heating, air conditioning and Wi-Fi, features that distinguish it from some abandoned properties used for paranormal investigations. He also points to the rarity of being able to investigate inside a former funeral home.
The attraction extends beyond ghost hunting. Visitors can watch horror films projected onto the wall of the main sitting room, with coffins surrounding the viewing area. In November, the venue is also scheduled to host its first wedding, planned for Friday the 13th.
Together, Eloise Asylum and Mortuary Manor illustrate how some Halloween attractions are using existing buildings and their histories to create experiences aimed at visitors seeking more than staged scares. The appeal lies partly in the settings themselves, where former treatment rooms, embalming facilities and morgues provide an atmosphere that purpose-built haunted houses may struggle to reproduce.
For operators, these sites offer a way to combine historical interest, overnight accommodation and paranormal-themed entertainment. For visitors, the experience can range from curiosity about the buildings’ pasts to the hope of witnessing something they cannot readily explain.
Cox sees Halloween as an opportunity for people to spend time with friends and family, relax and enjoy being frightened. At attractions such as Eloise Asylum, that entertainment is built around a more complicated history, one that continues to shape how the buildings are experienced and understood.
